Lost
by WolfUnderTheMoon
Summary: Back in MWPP time, another year of students is being sorted into their new houses...a boy with a mysterious secret, a girl who wants to run away...This story is very closely linked with another of my stories, I Am.And I'm not very good at writing summarie
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter. I am glad I don't, because if I did I wouldn't be able to go shopping without people recognising me.

I would like to say that, in this story, and in my story 'I Am', I am totally ignoring the whole of the sixth book, especially certain things to do with Tonks and my favourite character (Die Tonks Die) except for the spells, 'cos they're useful, and Lily being good at Potions. If I can think of anything else I'm not ignoring, although there won't be much, I'll put it down here. Unfortunately, this means that my story is now an AU, but it wasn't when I first thought of it.  
Thanks for reading this, if you did.

Lost

Chapter 1 -Here

"Kids! Hurry up, we've got go in fifteen minutes, and you haven't had your breakfasts yet!" Sighing, Birch Potter turned back to the cooker, knowing it was probably pointless to try and make them get ready faster.

"Mum, Hazel's hogging the bathroom!"

"Oh please, James. Just use your own."

"But the shower's broken again!"

"Use ours then."

"Fine." James stomped off down the corridor, narrowly avoiding his older brother Michael, a fifth year Ravenclaw, who was running at full speed towards the staircase. Jumping on the bannister, he slid down quickly, call as he went, "Mum, have you seen my Standard Book of Spells Grade 5? I must've left it somewhere…"

"It's over there, darling." Birch waved vaguely to the huge dining table without looking, the main part of her concentration focused on the large griddle of sizzling bacon rashers before her.

"Why's it there!"

"Because, dummy, you were reading it last night at tea." Hazel walked into the large kitchen, towelling her long black hair dry, dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt.

"Oh yeah. Thanks mum."

"No problem. Look after the bacon for a moment, will you, I need to find your father."

"Why, what's he doing?"

"Trying to find the Floo powder. We're going to Floo to the Leaky Cauldron, then walk from there."

A shout from James came down the stairs. "Aww, but mum, the trunks'll be really heavy!"

Birch sighed again as she crossed the room to the study door. "James, we have these things called wands, remember?"

"Oh yeah…"

Reaching the study door, Birch called through it. "Harold, have you found the Floo powder yet?"

"It should be on my desk somewhere, but…" There was a noise like a small avalanche, as masses of paper collapsed onto the floor. "Ah, there it is!"

He held up a small, bejewelled green pot triumphantly.

"Good, dear. Now are you going to come and have some breakfast?"

He followed her eagerly out of the study. "Mmm, bacon, my favourite."

At that moment, James came thundering down the stairs, his wet black hair disarrayed and sticking up at the back.

Finally, all were seated round the dining table, including 3-year-old Willow, giggling and rocking in her high chair as she gazed in adoration at her sister, who was attempting to get her to eat.

"Look Willow, bacon, yum yum! I'll bet you're really hungry, yeah…?"

"No. No, don't want foo'. Wanna wanna…" she paused for a moment as her brown eyes searched the room. Finally, her eyes widened as she caught sight of Merlin, the family's pet tabby cat, attempting to creep around the corner unseen.

"Kitty! Want Merlin!"

"Look, Twig, you're going to have to eat something. And you're not eating poor Merlin, before you ask."

Ten minutes later, the family had finished their breakfasts, and were stood as a group in front of one of the largest fireplaces in the dining room.

"Ok, Michael first."

Taking the pot of Floo powder from his father's hand, he withdrew from it a sparkling pinch, and threw it into the flames, which turned emerald green. Michael stepped into them, tucking his elbows in tight, and shouting, "The Leaky Cauldron!" Next went Harold, with Michael's and Hazel's suitcases. After him, Hazel, then James, scowling because he had to carry his own trunk, then finally Birch, holding Willow on her hip, and attempting to block the soot from her daughter's face.

Gathering round the suitcases, Birch and Harold took their wands out, muttering '_Pennaleva_' to make the cases feather light, as James checked his magically-powered watch, a present for his tenth birthday.

"We've got about quarter of an hour until the train goes."

"We're going to have to hurry, then. Take your cases, kids, they're fine now."

Saying goodbye and thank you for the use of his fireplace to Tom, the owner of the pub, the children's father headed the party out of the door.

Walking down the platforms, pulling their cases behind them and having to pretend they were heavy, they reached the barrier between Platform 9 and Platform 10.

"Here we are then. Right, Hazel and James first, and try to look inconspicuous, will you?"

Leaning casually against the barrier, they slipped through it and out onto Platform 9 ¾. There was a huge crowd gathered down the accessible side of the train, shouting and waving to their children and siblings as they entered the train, or leaned out of their windows, waving back.

The rest of the family through, Hazel and James were starting to feel increasingly more and more nervous. Their first day at the fabled Hogwarts!

Climbing onto the train after Michael, who had gone off with some of his friends to the other end of the train, they heard their parents shouting to them over the melee, "Have a great time! Don't worry about your owls, we'll send them on tomorrow!"

James led the way down the narrow but richly furnished corridor. Peering through window after window, he couldn't find one compartment that wasn't full of unfamiliar, older faces. Looking through the next one, however, James saw only one person, a boy of about his own age with black hair and his back turned, staring dejectedly out of the window with his chin on his hand as the landscape sped by.

"Haze, there's only one person in here. Wanna try?"

"Yeah, go in."

James slid the door back, and walked in, his still feather-light case trundling after him. The other boy glanced up.

"Oh…hi."

"Hi, I'm James, this is my sister Hazel. Can we sit in here?"

"Sure, go ahead."

Hazel lifted the feather-light cases on one finger and stowed them in the roof rack.

James leant forward and squinted slightly at Sirius. Sirius shifted uncomfortably. "What?"

James turned to his sister. "Doesn't he look kind of familiar to you?"

Hazel looked over. "Yeah, I know what you mean. What's your name?"

"Sirius Black."

"Of course! Remember, James, that function thingy mum and dad took us to last February? He was sitting further down the table on the other side." James nodded in agreement.

Sirius replied. "Oh yeah, I had to go and sit with my parents. They wouldn't let me escape." He rolled his eyes. "What's your surname?"

"Potter", they said in unison.

"Yeah, I've heard my parents talk about yours. They see them sometimes at those kind of dos."

What Sirius _didn't_ mention was that nothing his parents, or rather his mother, had said about the Potters was, in her eyes, good. 'Bunch of muggle-loving blood traitors was one of the most common ones, along with 'disgrace to the name of wizard' and 'disgusting, the way a decent family has its name trodden in mud by its children'; the last one was usually accompanied with a long glare at Sirius.

In fact, the last thing his mother had said to him (well, almost the last…) was "and don't go getting mixed up with those Potter children – I hear two more are starting this year." Sirius had decided then that he had to get to know them – and wasn't he making a good start?

The _last_ thing she'd actually said to him was "You little hooligan! You get back here and – aagh!" You'd think she'd _appreciate_ a skunk in her handbag…it smelt better than her normal perfume, probably literally 'eau de toilette'…

There came a knock at the door. It slid open, and a boy with dishevelled sandy hair and the most beautiful pair of amber-brown eyes Hazel had ever seen walked in, dragging a battered case with cardboard corners and tied round with string behind him. A smaller boy was following him, also with a trunk, who had mousy blonde hair and looked quite badly shaken. The first boy spoke. "Um, hi, um, can we sit in here? Just, well, there's nowhere else, and we just kind of got attacked."

Hazel blinked and realised she was staring. "Yeah, of course you can. Want some help with the trunks?" She stood up, smoothing down her black hair.

"Thanks. They're, um, a bit heavy though, watch it." Taking one end of his case, then the other boy's, each, they lifted them onto the magically expanding roof rack. Sitting down shyly next to Hazel, the boy missed the glare he received from James, sitting opposite him.

Sirius butted in. "So, you going to tell us who attacked you? And what are your names?"

The boy looked round. "Sorry, yeah, I'm being rude. I'm Remus Lupin." The boy said awkwardly.

Hazel smiled. "Nice name."

"Thanks."

The smaller, mousy-haired boy said "My n-name's Peter P-Pettigrew." He looked beseechingly towards Remus, and slumped down in the corner seat. Remus nodded. "Yeah, the attack. Well, Peter here had accidentally tripped up an older student, Slytherin, I think, with his trunk. They started sending spells at him – don't know what though – but I'd just come round the corner and I helped make excuses."

"Cool."

A few hours later, the talk had turned to families.

"What's your family like, then, Remus?"

"Um, well, I'm a half-blood, my mum's a witch but my dad's a muggle. I haven't got any brothers or sisters. What about you?"

"Pureblood, I've got two brothers, James here and Michael, he's a fifth year, in Ravenclaw, and a little sister, three years old, called Willow."

"Wow. It must be really nice to have brothers and sisters."

"Yeah, well, they're not all they're cracked up to be. Sometimes – most of the time – they can be really annoying." Hazel leaned across and punched her brother on the arm, disturbing him from talking to Sirius.

"Hey! Quit it!" he said, rubbing his arm.

Hazel grinned. "What about you, Peter?"

The mousy-haired boy looked up. "My…my dad's dead, h – he was a wizard…my mum's a Muggle, I've got no brothers or sisters."

"Right…um…Sirius?"

Sirius looked over from a heated debate with James about the best model of racing broom. "Huh? My parents? They're bloody awful. Expect me to be a perfect little Slytherin. I've got one brother, Regulus; he'll start Hogwarts in two years. He's a little toerag too." Sirius went back to his conversation. "The Shooting Star III, it's got to be. The aerodynamics…"

A few minutes later, the door slid open, and a dark-haired head poked into the compartment. "Hey, here you are! Blimey, I've been looking for you everywhere, I was right down the other end of the train!" James and Hazel's brother Michael came in, and sat down next to James. "So, how are you doing? I promised mum and dad I'd come and check on you."

James shook his head in mock disappointment. "Oh, so it wasn't just brotherly love for your siblings, it was orders? Tch, tch."

"Yeah, whatever, little bro. I see you've met lots of people…Sirius Black, right?" He pointed to Sirius in the corner.

Sirius nodded. "Yeah."

"I thought so, you look a bit like your cousins."

Sirius scowled. "Oh. Them."

There was a commotion further down the corridor, and a loud bang echoed through the train. Michael stood up quickly, as laughter followed the bang. "Gotta go, guys, I'm missing all the action. See you at school!"

He opened the door, walked out quickly out into the narrow corridor, then halted for a moment and turned back round. "Sorry, I forgot. You'd better put your robes on, we'll arrive in a few hours." He turned again, and jogged down the corridor towards his laughing friends and a now empty box of Zonko's fireworks. A wisp of smoke from the recent explosion drifted in. Hazel opened the window, shaking her head. "He'd better hope he doesn't get a Howler from mum again. He'll be in trouble before term's even started!"

Peter looked around. "Shouldn't we do as he say, put our robes on?" James nodded. "Yeah, I suppose." Trunks were lifted down off the rack, the Potters' growing slightly heavier as the feather-light charm wore off. Pulling on their robes, they wondered between themselves what houses they would be in. "I hope we'll be in Gryffindor. Most of our family has been – either Gryffindor, or Ravenclaw like Michael – mum and dad were both in Gryffindor." Sirius nodded, looking disgruntled. "Yeah, well, I hope I don't follow my family. Who wants to be a stinking Slytherin? And I can't honestly see what's so bad about Muggles, I mean, Ok they don't know any magic, but they can't really help that, can they? Of course, I can't say that kind of thing at home – mummy and daddy dearest wouldn't be too happy about it." He paused for a moment. "What about you two then?" he said, pointing to Remus and Peter. "Any idea what houses you'll be in?"

"Not really. I think my mum was a Hufflepuff, but I'm not sure."

"I – I'll probably be in a rubbish house. I'm no good at magic, really."

Sirius grinned at him, feeling slightly sorry for the shy-looking boy. "Don't worry, you won't be in a rubbish house. Slytherin's the worst house, definitely, and I doubt you'll be in that."

Later…but still on the Hogwarts Express… 

Sirius had dug his wand out of his trunk, intending to show the group a spell he had been practising. "Look…" He flicked through _The Standard Book Of Spells: Grade 1_, until he found the right page. "Right, here we are. Levitation of inanimate objects. Ok…" He swished and flicked his wand, as he cried, "_Wingardium Leviosa_!" and pointed it at an empty inkwell he had placed on the compartment floor. Nothing happened. Sirius cheeks started to flush a little. He peered at the book again, muttering to himself, "I'm sure I'm doing it right…" His eyes widened as he caught one paragraph, entitled '_Pronunciation'_. He tried again. "_Wingardium Leviosa_!" This time, the inkwell rose slowly from the floor, until it hovered awkwardly a foot from the ground. The other occupants of the compartment clapped and applauded. "Great! That's a really good spell, I'll have to try that one myself!"

James questioned Sirius, "What kind of wand's that? Mine's mahogany, eleven inches, dragon heartstring core."

Sirius replied, attempting to clean it slightly. "Ten inches, maple, dragon heartstring too." He looked about. "What about the rest of you?"

Hazel replied, "Thirteen inches, ebony and phoenix feather. It took me ages to find the right one, I was in there for about two hours, remember, James?"

James nodded. "Yeah, Mr. Ollivander said that's the longest a wand choosing had ever taken!"

Remus glanced towards his trunk, where his wand was tucked away safely in an inner pocket. "Mine's twelve and a half inches, holly and unicorn tail hair."

Peter looked up from whatever private thoughts he was having. "Um…elm and unicorn hair, nine inches."

About half an hour later, Sirius stuck his head out of the open window, and caught his first glimpse of Hogsmeade station, still in the distance as of yet, but getting closer by the second. "Hey guys, look! We're almost there!" The group crowded round, sticking their heads out of the window. Further down the train, more windows were opened, and heads appeared at many.

Their first day at the fabled Hogwarts. And now they were almost there.

Wow that was a long chapter! I'll say now - the other chapters probably won't be quite as long, but I'll try to keep them as long as I can, cos I know it sucks to just have millions of tiny chapters.


	2. Chapter 2 There

Ok, I must confess that I took everything Hagrid and Minerva McGonagall say in this chapter straight out of HP1. But hey, just means it's correct.

Chapter 2 -There

"Firs' years! Firs' years over here! Any more o' you out there?"

Peter stopped in his tracks, his eyes widening. He pointed a finger. "Wh – wh – what's tha-that?"

The others looked round and followed his finger. A huge man, half-veiled by the night mist, was looming up from the shadows.

Hazel replied. "Oh, mum and dad told us about him, he's the groundskeeper. Um…can't remember his name…" She looked at James. "Any ideas?"

"Yeah…um…Hagrid, wasn't it? Yeah, that's right. Strange name. Think it's his surname."

Sirius laughed. "You think that's strange? You're talking to someone who has cousins called Andromeda, Narcissa and Bellatrix."

James smiled, "Yeah, I see what you mean."

"Righ', all here? Sure? Ok, off we go!"

Feeling very grateful that they did not have to take their trunks (they had left them on the train as they were to be taken up separately), as none of them knew the feather-light charm, the group set off, trying not to think about how slippery the steep, winding path would be if it had rained that day.

Hagrid called over his shoulder, "Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec. Just' round this bend here."

He went round a corner and was lost to sight. Those at the front of the procession filed out into a presumably large area, unseeable from the path. Cries of, "Oh wow!", "Cool!", and "Oh hell, I hate boats…" went up.

The group, who had been last off the carriage because of the squash of students at the exit, reached the end of the path. Laid out before them was a huge lake, silvery light from the crescent moon sparkling off ripples made by creatures far out in the water. And beyond that, the castle…Hogwarts, all the children gazing in awe at the huge castle, perched high up on a craggy mountaintop, a sparkling jewel in the night air.

"Righ', no more'n four to a boat!" A small fleet of boats with no visible means of propulsion sat in the water near the shore, tethered to a pole on the shore but bobbing up and down slightly in the ebb and flow of the ripples.

Hazel looked at James, but Sirius had grabbed his arm and was trying to drag him away to one of the boats, Remus and Peter following.

"Um, Haze, is it ok if I go with them? Um…"

Hazel forced a small smile. "Yeah, go on, it's ok, I'll find somewhere else."

"Ok…if you're sure…"

As James followed the other boys, Hazel looked around, wondering what she was supposed to do now. Approaching a small group of three girls who looked quite friendly, she smiled shyly and asked, "Hi, um, I'm Hazel, um…can I go in a boat with you?"

A girl of about the same height as Hazel, but with just-past-shoulder-length dark red hair and sparkling emerald green eyes smiled at her, and spoke. "Yeah, of course. I'm Lily Evans, this is Maria Hall, (the girl, with mid-back-length light brown hair and brown eyes, waved) and this is…"

"Imperia Malfoy." Hazel interrupted. "Yeah, we've met before."

Imperia, who had long, platinum blonde hair and brown eyes, said, "Yeah, Hazel Potter, right? You were the girl who was pulling faces behind my father at that thing last February when he stood up to speak." She smiled at the memory – Imperia was not overly fond of her father. Or her mother or her brother, for that matter. But she had to put up with it. Where would an eleven-year-old go?

Hazel smiled more widely. "That's right."

A shouted prompting from Hagrid made the four climb into their chosen boat. Hagrid, who had a boat to himself, which was tilting slightly, called, "Everyone in? Right then – forward!"

The boats glided forward over the lake, heading for a shadowy, ivy-curtained entrance in the cliff face, at water level. As the first boats approached it, Hagrid called, "Heads down!"

The small fleet glided down a long, dark tunnel, emerging after a few minutes into a huge underground harbour, beneath the castle, where they left the boats and followed Hagrid to a flight of stone steps, the pebbles of the beach crunching beneath their feet, and up them. Hagrid, scanning the crowd to check all were present, raised his fist and knocked three times on the huge, magically reinforced double doors. The doors to the castle.

The door swung open, and a tall, black-haired witch in navy blue robes stood there.

Hazel could see her brother across the crowd, whispering and laughing with the other boys, until he received a stern glare from the tall witch.

"The firs' years, Professor McGonagall."

"Thankyou, Hagrid. I will take them from here."

As the crowd trooped through the huge doors, now wide open, Hazel gazed round the huge entrance hall. Flaming torches were mounted on the walls, burning blue; a massive marble staircase facing them led to the first floor. The ground was paved with worn stone slabs (Merlin knew how long they had been there) and she thought of the hundreds, thousands of students that must have made their way across it in past years.

Professor McGonagall led them across the room to another, smaller, wooden door, set in the left hand side of the hall. Opening it, she ushered them in, all of them visibly nervous and crowding together for company.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory and spend free time in your house common room."

"The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule-breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honour. I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.

"The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting. I shall return when we are ready for you. Please wait quietly."

She left the small chamber.

James, whilst trying to flatten down his hair a bit (although he knew it was pointless) caught sight of a flash of red from the other side of the room. Stepping sideways slightly, he saw the mass of red turn round a reveal a beautiful face, with laughing green eyes and a lovely smile. James stared. "Wow…" he breathed. Sirius heard this and turned to him.

"Huh?"

James tore his eyes reluctantly away from the sight. "That girl over there…wow…"

Sirius looked over. "Which one?"

"The one with the red hair."

Sirius c spotted her. "Wow, yeah, I can see what you mean. Nice."

James turned angrily towards him…

Over on the other side of the chamber… 

Hazel had caught sight of her brother staring at Lily, and smiled to herself.

Awww. Wasn't that cute…

"Oh. My god. Lily!"

Lily turned and squealed at the sight. Her eyes lit up as she stared at the girl running towards her. "Rosa! You're kidding, what are you doing here!"

The other girl, with dark brown hair cut in a bob and blue eyes, "What are _you_ doing here! I haven't seen you for ages, I got this letter and I told my mum and she said yes she'd been expecting something like this and my mum's a witch and this is so weird!" Rosa paused for breath.

Lily started. "Oh, sorry, forgot my manners. Got to introduce you." She turned to the Hazel, Imperia and Maria, who had been standing watching them in amusement.

"Girls, this is Rosa Green. I've known her since we were really little, our parents are friends, and she never told me she got the letter! Rosa, this is Imperia, Maria and Hazel."

Rosa grinned at them. They liked her at first sight.

"Hi! And Lily never told me she got the letter either, did you Lils?"

Lily was saved from replying, and Sirius was saved from James glaring at him by the return of Professor McGonagall into the chamber.

"Come on now. The Sorting Ceremony's about to start. Form a line and follow me."

Most peoples' faces had turned ashen, apart from a few who were smiling nervously, trying to pretend they weren't dreading this.

They were led across the entrance hall again, and through another large pair of double doors, and into the candlelit hall beyond.

All whispering stopped. Thousands of candles hovered above the tables, illuminating them and the ceiling above, which was velvety black and dotted with stars and a silver sliver from the corner of the moon.

All the students had turned to look at the new first years, some of them making bets as to which houses some of them would be in, just by looking at them. The walls were lined with ghosts, some of them smiling, a few impassive, and one, blood-stained and staring, near the Slytherin table.

In the mass of faces, Hazel could see a few she recognised. As she looked at the Ravenclaw table, her brother Michael caught her eye and waved. Further down the table, sitting with her friends, was the Head Girl, whom she knew to be Andromeda Black, one of Sirius's cousins. Andromeda was smiling happily at the new first years – she could obviously remember what it was like to be in their position. Glancing over at the Slytherin table, she could see Andromeda's sister, Narcissa, with her friends around her pointing and laughing at the first years with no such sympathy. Her platinum blonde hair poker straight down her back, and her nose lifted, Narcissa smiled only at her sister, Bellatrix, in the queue far in front of Hazel.

The line had stopped. Professor McGonagall placed a short, four-legged stool on the floor, and a battered, frayed and dirty wizard's hat on top of it.

To the new first years' surprise, a large rip near the brim opened like a mouth, and the hat began to sing, rather badly;

"Long years ago when I was new,

There came to Hogwarts the chosen few.

Into the houses they were sorted,

Into the houses they were parted.

Slytherin and Gryffindor,

Hufflepuff and Ravenclaw.

It's times like these that I wish

That I had never accepted this

I must quarter every year

And yet still I fear

That this will divide you all

And that the world will fall.

Only you can remedy this

By making friendship your wish."

The students seated at the tables, who had listened to this, began to whisper among themselves about this new song, until Professor Dumbledore, resplendent in deep purple robes, rose and clapped his hands together. "Quiet, please."

Professor McGonagall stepped forwards, holding a long list.

"When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted."

And so the Sorting began.


	3. Chapter 3 Beginnings

Chapter 3 -Beginnings…

"Anstay, Olivia!" A rather tall girl with short dark hair made her way nervously forwards to the stool, and, glancing desperately at Professor McGonagall, obviously wishing that she was not the first in the line, put the dilapidated hat on her head. The hat cogitated for a moment, and… "Ravenclaw!" it called to the hall. The girl stood up immediately, blushing as she almost lost her balance, as the table with blue and silver drapes behind it started to cheer. She walked to the end of the bench, then sat down quickly, closing her eyes and looking as though she was trying to shrink out of sight.

The next person in the queue was Sirius's cousin, Bellatrix, who swept forwards, nose raised like her sister, and stood with a ramrod-straight back, her hands folded on her lap after placing the hat on her head. A seconds pause, and… "Slytherin!" the hat screamed, and the girl smiled, placed the hat back on the stool again, and swept off again, to the Slytherin table, where her Narcissa welcomed her and let her sit next to her. Andromeda, on the Ravenclaw table, who had been talking happily to Olivia, trying to dispel her nervousness, saw this. Her smile faded. Another sister lost to Slytherin.

Sirius was next, and his scowl at his cousins on the Slytherin table vanished, and was replaced with…well, not quite total and utter dread, because after all, this was Sirius Black, but definitely pretty near. He didn't want to be in Slytherin, he knew that. He'd much rather be in Gryffindor. But if he wasn't in Slytherin or Ravenclaw, then…his mother would kill him, to put it bluntly. His father probably wouldn't care, they hardly ever saw each other, but…no, he had to be in Gryffindor. Walking forwards uncertainly from almost the end of the queue, he put the hat on his head, then sat down. The hat whispered in his ear, "Ah yes, another Black. There are so many of you, aren't there? I see you're worried I'm going to place you in Slytherin…but I don't think you have the right mind for that. Definitely not Hufflepuff, no…and I think you're a bit too headstrong for Ravenclaw, and they've never appreciated pranksters…no, it has to be…Gryffindor!" Sirius sat, stunned, for a moment, then really realised what the hat had just said. He was a Gryffindor! The first in his house for…well, centuries, and no-one could take that away from him! He wasn't going to be a Slytherin, like the rest of his stuck-up, Muggle-hating family, he was a Gryffindor! YES!

A huge grin spread across his face as he swaggered to the end of the Gryffindor bench, sitting down with the red and gold hangings behind him. He could see Andromeda beaming proudly and waving at him, and he waved back, but he could also see Narcissa and the newly-sorted Bellatrix, glaring at him. He hadn't seen them for a few years now, and he was glad of it. And if he could manage it, he would try to avoid them at school as well.

He wouldn't manage it.

After Sirius, another Slytherin was sorted in; "Bulstrode, Justin!" then a girl called Florence Clearwater went into Hufflepuff. Trevor Cranston became the second Ravenclaw, and then a girl called Ariadne Crossfield, stunningly but slightly over-the-toply beautiful, was sorted into Slytherin. The D's, Rose Dalfin and Amelia Dean, both became Ravenclaws, then Natasha Earnshaw, a Hufflepuff, and then it was Lily's turn.

Lily made her way forward nervously, the others whispering, "Good luck!" to her. What she was most worried about wasn't what house she was going to be in, as she didn't really know much about them, but that she would actually get sorted at all. None of her family had ever been magical, so why was she? What if she just sat there for ages with the hat on her head, and nothing happened? But she was there, and sitting down, her eyes tight shut, with the hat, and…it was speaking to her in her head! This place was just weird.

"Yes…interesting mind, very interesting, I see you're not afraid to stand up for what you believe in…well, I think I'd better place you in GRYFFINDOR!"

Lily's eyes snapped open. It had sorted her! She was really going to be a witch! She put the hat back on the stool and walked, as if in a dream, over to the Gryffindor table, and sat down near Sirius.

Next in the queue came Rosa, who wasn't quite as nervous as Lily, but not far off. And the hat sorted her into… "Gryffindor!"

Further down the line, Imperia, Hazel and Maria were still talking, very quietly. "This is so weird! Wouldn't it be great if we were all in the same house?"

"Yeah, and it looks like it's going that way, doesn't it?"

Imperia, however, looked far from happy. She knew that, with her family's history, she had little or no possibility of being a Gryffindor, what she really wanted to be.

"Imperia? What's wrong?"

This question from Maria jerked her out of her reverie. "Oh, nothing. Just a bit nervous, that's all." Maria nodded at this – it was to be expected, after all.

Next was a tiny boy, with watery light brown eyes, called David Gudgeon. Just before he reached the stool he stumbled, and caught hold of the stool to stop himself falling, pulling it over, the hat with it calling, "Oh! I say, do be careful." Blushing furiously, the boy righted the stool and sat down with the hat on his head, eyes downturned because of the laughter coming from the tables. "Hufflepuff!"

Maria next. She walked forwards, biting her bottom lip, but she had nothing to worry about. The hat, seeing, in her mind, bravery and a wish to do what was right, placed her straight in Gryffindor.

A boy called Derek Heaney was sorted into Ravenclaw, and then came two Hufflepuffs, Eric Hillman and Bertha Jorkins. "Keslake, Robert!" was sorted into Ravenclaw, and then came two brothers, Rabastan and Rodolphus Lestrange, the second continually sneaking looks over at Bellatrix on the Slytherin table. "Slytherin!" was called for both.

Next, a short boy with long wavy golden hair and rather weak chin walked up to the stool. He left behind him, in the queue, a couple of rather giggly girls. "Hufflepuff!"

Remus was next, and as he walked up the side of the line, his eyes met Hazel's and she gave him a smile. He smiled back, feeling a bit better. 'Please let me be in the same house as her…' he thought to himself. 'Please…'

Seating himself, he pushed his sandy hair back out of his eyes, and put the hat on. "Hmmm…quite difficult…you could definitely do well in Ravenclaw, no doubt about that, you have the mind for it…but I feel that you would do rather better in a different house…yes…I think…GRYFFINDOR!"

Hazel watched Remus walk, relieved and smiling, over to the Gryffindor table, and collapse on the bench next to Sirius, looking exhausted. Frowning briefly, she wondered why…

Two twins, Archibald and Millicent Macmillan, were sorted next, but unlike Rodolphus and Rabastan, they were split up, Archibald going into Hufflepuff house, and Millicent going into Ravenclaw.

"Malfoy, Imperia!" Imperia was, quite possibly, the most tense of the whole crowd of first years. If she was sorted into Slytherin, she would probably finish school having no friends, because she knew Gryffindors and Slytherins didn't get along, and none of the Slytherins looked very nice. However, if she went into Gryffindor, her surname would count against her, and her parents were definitely be displeased, to say nothing of her brother Lucius, but she would at least have friends. She decided to leave it down to the hat, and try not to influence it either way.

"Ah yes, a Malfoy…but you're quite different from the rest of your family, aren't you? You don't understand your family's prejudices…and you would value friends above power. Yes, quite unlike them. Especially your brother, as I recall…well, for you, the way is obvious. Not Slytherin, definitely not, and you would find yourself unhappy in either Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff, I believe. It'll have to be…GRYFFINDOR!"

Yes! She was a Gryffindor! The first in her family for centuries to be a Gryffindor! And nobody could take that away from her. And, to make things easier, she already had friends there, whom she could see clapping and grinning at her, beckoning her to come and sit next to them, which she did. She felt…welcomed.

Following her came Frederick Nott, a Slytherin, then, "Pell, Melanie!" who became a Hufflepuff. The rest of the P's came after her; Peter Pettigrew first. He was shaking all the way to the stool, and looked as though he really would like the ground to open and swallow him up, or at least everyone to look away and talk quietly among themselves. "You have it in you to be brave, I see…but it could take quite some work to bring that to the surface. You would possibly be best in Hufflepuff…but…I see you find it hard to make friends, and you wish to be in Gryffindor along with the ones you already have. Yes…I think you might do well in there, with help…I am not totally convinced, however…but…you'd better be in GRYFFINDOR!" Peter stumbled over to the bench next to the other boys, and sat down, trying to sink lower so nobody could see him.

It was Hazel's turn next, then James's. Seating herself, her dark hair hiding her face, Hazel listened to the hat. "Of course, another Potter. Well, looking at your mind, I think you'll be as easy to place as your father was. I feel that you both have the same bravery and disregard for the rules…GRYFFINDOR!"

Remus heard this, and thanked his lucky stars, which were quite possibly being displayed on the magnificent ceiling. They were in the same house!

James sat down next, grinning at Sirius, Remus and Peter on the Gryffindor table. The hat went on, and, "As easy as your sister to place. GRYFFINDOR!"

Like Sirius, James swaggered over to the table, and sat next to Sirius. They were all in Gryffindor and, in their elation, it didn't occur to any of them that this was slightly strange.

Gryffindor house was now full, and there were only six children left to sort. A boy with greasy hair and darting black eyes, "Snape, Severus!" came next, and went into Slytherin as soon as the hat touched his head. After him another Slytherin, Gertrude Tarpen, was sorted, then a Hufflepuff, Emily Tompkins, two Ravenclaws, Katie Tyler and Clarence Wainwright, who had been looking terrified at being almost the last in the line, and finally Albert Zabini, a Slytherin, who obviously knew he was going to be last in the queue and blatantly didn't care and didn't look nervous at all.

The sorting was at an end, and all that was left before the start of the great feast was a speech from Dumbledore, who, after Professor McGonagall had rolled up the parchment list and taken the Sorting Hat away, stood from his seat, shaking his starred purple robes off his hands and opening his arms wide. "Welcome! Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to speak to you all. I hope you all enjoy your time here, and, well…Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak!"

The first years looked at each other, confused, for a moment, then started to laugh along with the rest of the school. Suddenly, the empty dishes in front of them started to fill with food.

"Wow…"

Each doling themselves out a good plateful, the groups began to talk and laugh amongst themselves, wondering what their time at school would be like, and what their lessons the next day would be.


	4. Chapter 4 Waking Dreams

Wow, sorry this chapter took so long to materialise, but I've been having mocks, then going through mocks, then revision...stupid GCSEs!

Chapter 4. Waking Dreams

Lily sighed and turned over. It had all been a dream, obviously, but it had been a good one and she didn't want to wake up from it. There had been a train, then a lake and a group of girls she had been chatting to, then a huge castle, and…and she realised she could remember everything. That was strange.

It started to filter into her bleary, semi-conscious state that the bed she was lying in was much softer than the one she was used to sleeping in, and that the birds she could hear outside sounded different from those near her house in Kent, and there were a lot more of them. She could also hear the sounds of other people sleeping, to the left and to the right. She opened her eyes, blinking in the early September sunlight filtering through a gap in the deep burgundy bed curtains…wait a minute? Hangings round the bed? Huh?

Lily suddenly snapped her eyes fully open. It was real! She had come up a spiral stone staircase with moving pictures on the walls, and found a common room with a roaring, magically sustained fire in a massive fireplace, and found this room, and unpacked her things from her suitcase, which had been waiting for her. And she was at a magical school…and this was her first day. She checked her watch, lying on the bedside table next to her hurriedly, then realised after a brief panic that it had stopped at half past eight the night before, about the time at which she had entered the castle grounds. She frowned, not understanding this, but figured it was probably just some sort of magical side-effect. However, as a few things filtered back into her mind, she realised it was Saturday anyway, and that all the other beds in the dormitory were still occupied, so she was alright to enjoy her luxurious surroundings a bit longer.

Sirius pulled back the curtains of the first year Gryffindor boy's dormitory, pushed open the rusty latch on the window and stuck his head out into the fresh air, breathing it in deeply, the air refreshing after the slightly stuffy air of the dormitory. He was subject to no delusions of dreams like Lily – he had grown up knowing that when he was eleven he would come here (despite all his mother's threats and his cousins Narcissa and Bellatrix's taunts), and he had a magically powered watch, still on his wrist and reading twenty past seven – and he was looking forward to a new environment to wreak havoc on. Leaning out a bit further, Sirius could see the massive grounds, green and lush, and a branch of the lake they had crossed in boats the night before – it still looked huge, even from this height. There was a hut in the grounds, and he vaguely recalled his father mentioning to him in one of his brief and uncommon talks to Sirius that the groundskeeper, the huge man they had met the night before, lived there. Over to his right, Sirius could also see a massive tree, its branches waving threateningly, even in this slight breeze. The soil was disturbed around its base – it looked as though it had only just been planted, and Sirius wondered why. But it wasn't important.

On the edge of the grounds was a dark forest, the tall pine trees growing close together, swaying slightly in the fresh breeze. As he watched, a cloud of pigeons erupted upwards from one spot, disturbed from their nests by something shaking the tree far below. Dumbledore had mentioned the forest in his speech – they were "not to go near the Forbidden Forest under any circumstances" as they "may not come out again. Their full extent has never been charted, and who knows what lurks in the undergrowth?" This had been enough to put most of the students off, but not Sirius – and he was sure that, given a little work, he could persuade James, and possibly Remus and Peter, although he wasn't too sure, to come and explore them too. Well…possibly not Peter. He had looked terrified during Dumbledore's speech about the Forest. However, Remus also had gone incredibly pale when they overheard one of the older students saying there were werewolves in the forest. Sirius had laughed – he wasn't honestly scared of werewolves, was he? They'd never get into the school grounds, anyway!

Remus was awake, but lying quietly so he would not be disturbed while he wrestled with his thoughts. He knew Sirius was awake, had heard him do something but only realised what it was when the draught from the open window came through the hangings, and he could tell the other two were asleep – he could smell it.

He was getting jittery. It was only two days until the full moon, and he would have to think of an excuse to give his new friends. He hoped they were his friends – his father, totally unsympathetic as normal, had always told him before he came to Hogwarts that he couldn't have friends because of his condition; he couldn't get close to anyone incase he hurt them. His mother had been much more understanding – it was she who had spoken to Dumbledore for him – his father had not wanted him coming to Hogwarts, he would be "a danger to the other children, and if anything happens I'll get blamed for it, won't I?" He never imagined that he could be able to come to Hogwarts, the place he had heard so much about – in a fit of anger once his father had told him that they didn't send dangerous animals to schools, they put them down…he had hated his father more than ever that day, because he knew that, in a way, he was right.

But Dumbledore had changed that. He had accepted Remus into the school, and had reassured him that measures had been taken to organise something for each full moon. Remus knew that he was the first ever student with his…condition…at the school, and so was slightly apprehensive about what the school had organised – what could they possibly do that would keep everybody, including him, safe that one time a month? Did they know how much destruction he could do in that form? At his home, there was a small shed down at the bottom of the garden, windowless and magically reinforced to ten times the strength of steel…he had grown to hate that shed, and the way he was imprisoned in it every month, his mother crying but knowing she had to lock him in there, and his father, remaining in the house, glaring at him from afar, for ruining the whole family's lives…

There was another thing too. The girl he had met yesterday, Hazel. He wanted to be friends with her…possibly…well…more than friends. He blushed. His mother had reassured him that there was no problem in him having girlfriends, but if he was really serious that he would have to tell the girl about his lycanthropy, and he couldn't honestly imagine anyone staying around him more than the time it took to scream and run. It was the same with his new friends. Sooner or later they would work it out, and would they really stick by him then? He had never told anyone before; the lectures his father had given him had made Remus into the nervous, shy, quiet boy he was now.

Remus snuggled down under the thick deep red duvet. He may as well get some sleep while he could – he would need it.


End file.
